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3/06/2019

PDP: INEC ACCUSED OF RIGGING POLLS FOR APC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has written to the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), accusing it of colluding with
the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the February 23 Presidential and
National Assembly elections.

The party stated this in a letter signed by its National
Chairman, Uche Secondus, which was presented to INEC during a protest staged by
the party on Tuesday.

Some leaders of the party marched to the headquarters of
INEC on Tuesday to protest the outcome of the presidential election.

According to a tweet by INEC, Mr Secondus led many of his
party’s supporters to the commission’s office at Maitama around 3 p.m. on
Tuesday.

In the letter by the party, they accused the APC led federal
government and INEC of militarisation of polls in its strongholds and skewing
the process in the favour of the ruling party.

Mr Secondus said the letter became imperative as the nation
approached the governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections on March 9.

Grievances

The letter which was titled ‘Cases of infractions and
deliberate violations of the electoral law and guidelines,’ was made available
to journalists.

It read, “We want to place on record and bring to your
attention the very obvious and noticeable infractions and violations of the
Electoral Law and the Regulations/Guidelines regulating the 2019 general
elections which have very negative implications on the credibility,
transparency and integrity of the entire electoral processes particularly the
just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections.

“We observed with regrets that the usage of the SCR machines
was enforced strategically in the South-South, South-East and the North-Central
zones of the country which are essentially the PDP strongholds. This is
radically different from what transpired in the North-West, North-East and the
South-West, which were estimated as the APC strongholds.

“This is quite contrary to the provisions of paragraph 10(a)
& (b) of the regulations and guidelines governing the 2019 General
Elections and all the assurances you, Prof. Yakub Mahmood, frequently gave up
to the last hours before the elections.

“The deliberate
non-deployment of the Electronic Collation System (E-Collation) for the
elections results from the units, through the ward centres to the Presidential
Collation Centre in Abuja as provided for in the 2019 Electoral Regulations and
Guidelines made by you, and as contained in your several official press
statements is very suspect.

“This is more so when you have never bothered to explain to
Nigerians the justification for this sudden official somersault on such a
critical component of the electoral process especially with all the taxpayer’s
money spent to install the facilities.

“The unconstitutional deployment of the armed forces
especially soldiers and police for the illegitimate purposes to harassing,
intimidating, suppressing of leaders of the PDP and suppression of voters in
the PDP strongholds across the country which are very well known to you.

“The use of these same security agents by the government to
harass and intimidate Resident Electoral Commissioners and certain INEC
national commissioners for the sake of forcing them to declare votes for the
APC’s candidates throughout the country has been officially or otherwise
brought to your knowledge by the affected officers who even threatened to
resign from their positions, yet you have decided to keep mute over it in a way
portraying outright conspiracy and collusion of yourself and the commission
with the APC government perpetrators.”

The party also said most of the collation centres in the
country were cordoned off by officers and men of the armed forces who allegedly
chased its accredited agents and/or candidates.

He said results of the elections from such units were being
manipulated, mutilated and altered to suit the dictates and “criminal” desires
of the APC-led government.

“These results that were tampered with were accepted by you
and your commission and announced as the results of the elections.

“In places like Lagos, Rivers, Nasarawa, Abia, Benue,
Plateau, Ondo, Osun states et al, results of duly conducted elections were
illegally cancelled especially in the PDP dominated areas to reduce the margin
of victory in those states in favour of the APC candidates. Is it not
surprising to you that the Lagos State with over six million voters can only
return less than one million votes? This was the case in virtually all the PDP
dominated states where voter suppression was deployed as a major strategy by
you and the APC government in active collaboration with some of your
unscrupulous RECs and staffers.

“We have taken time
to chronicle the above fundamental deliberate violations and infractions of the
Electoral Law, Regulations and Guidelines and all known canons of electoral
best practices by your commission in obvious complicity and collaboration with
the APC and security agencies to rig the elections and rob our party of
victory.

“We want to remind you that as we inch towards Saturday,
March 9, 2019 elections, you must do everything to right these grave anomalies
to save yourself and the commission from this woeful embarrassment as you may
go down in history as the worst Chairman of INEC in our history.”

He also cautioned INEC against militarising the electoral
process, adding that such was undemocratic.

Backstory

The party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had
rejected the result of the poll as declared by INEC.

INEC had declared President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC as
winner of the election and returned him as duly elected.

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